Published 4:00 am, Saturday, June 12, 2004

Photo: MARK COSTANTINI

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HOUSEXX_049.JPG Photo taken on 6/12/04 in SAN FRANCISCO.
Kendall Goh and her daughter Zi Zi(in foreground) and other community activists in front of 111 Manchester, a home they went to court to protect from demolition. Photo: Mark Costantini/SF Chronicle less

HOUSEXX_049.JPG Photo taken on 6/12/04 in SAN FRANCISCO.
Kendall Goh and her daughter Zi Zi(in foreground) and other community activists in front of 111 Manchester, a home they went to court to protect from ... more

A Victorian cottage in Bernal Heights that survived the 1906 earthquake and fire has been spared from demolition once again -- this time by the courts.

Backed by a law meant to preserve the character of the eclectic south- side neighborhood, residents filed a lawsuit against the city and the homeowner to block the demolition. They convinced a Superior Court judge, Ronald Quidachay, to void a permit for the work and send the case back to San Francisco's Board of Appeals for further review.

"It's a huge victory to get the city to enforce its own preservation laws, " said Kendall Goh, a 10-year resident of Bernal Heights, with its hills looking down onto the Mission District and narrow streets crowded with narrow homes and shops catering to an increasingly affluent community.

"We are trying to protect the character of these neighborhoods. An important part of the character is these old Victorian homes," Goh said, "but developers want to come in and build four-story monster homes."

City attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey warned that the judge's decision was made strictly on procedural grounds, and the demolition could still proceed, if the Board of Appeals and the homeowner correct their mistakes.

The Board of Appeals must amend its findings to state why it overruled the city Planning Commission's refusal to grant the demolition permit, and the homeowner must apply for the permit under a different section of the planning code, Dorsey said.

"It's completely a procedural issue," he added.

Still, some people say the decision could have implications throughout the city -- where housing stock is limited and developers continue to tear down old homes to replace them with bigger structures.

One such neighborhood is Bernal Heights, which was originally a working- class neighborhood filled with immigrants. But it has increasingly become home to professional people who exercise at Bernal Yoga, walk their children and dogs along Cortland Avenue and shop at Good Life Grocery. Housing prices can top $1 million for single family homes.

"I don't believe the city has really taken this preservation ordinance seriously and if they don't take it seriously in this case, they're not going to in the case of other demolitions," said attorney Arthur Levy, who represented the neighbors for free.

"The message being sent to the city ... and developers is that they don't have to take this part of city code seriously," Levy added.

The law generally bans demolitions within the district, with limited exemptions.

A house may be demolished if it is an immediate threat to public safety, if the structure has no value, or if the city Department of Building Inspection issues an order declaring the home unsafe and repairs to make it safe and habitable would cost more than 50 percent of the replacement cost, Levy said. None of those exemptions applied to this case, he said.

Levy said he expects the city's Board of Appeals to deny the demolition permit this time around, but he promised to go back to court, if necessary, to protect the house.

Timothy Chan, the owner of the cottage, at 111 Manchester St., said he had reached out to his neighbors and hoped to negotiate a compromise so he could improve or replace the house and live in it.

Bernal Heights resident Rolf Kvalvik, 75, moved into the neighborhood in 1929 with his parents and still lives in his childhood home, five houses up from 111 Manchester St.

"We want to keep the neighborhood relatively the same way," said Kvalvik, who is particularly critical of the previous owner of the cottage, who sold it to Chan last year rather than make repairs.

"She said take it or leave it, and that's what brought the neighbors together," he said. "If she had worked with us, she would have had her house."

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